Sean: By being united to Christ in faith, we receive anointing and we have the same spirit in us, the personal presence of God himself, the same Holy Spirit who equipped Samson and Gideon and David, and yes, even Jesus Christ God himself, while he was ministering on earth, empowered by the Holy Spirit. He is the same spirit who lives in us.
Caleb: The following message was recorded at Kingstree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Sean: We'll be continuing in first Samuel. If you would turn to chapter nine, that's where we'll be starting this morning. One Samuel chapter nine. Last time in chapter eight, we saw a turning point in Israel's history as they rejected God as their king and they started asking, or remember that word, Sa'al'ing, for a
Sean: king of their own. Now
Sean: this would not be like the king that God would have appointed for them, but rather they wanted a king like the nations surrounding them. Of course, God had already provided for them all they needed. God had judged them through Samuel. God had gone out before them and fought their battles. We saw that in chapters four through seven, and yet they wanted this power concentrated on a human source who they could see.
Now we also saw that Samuel gave a warning to the people of Israel. He said, If you do this, it's gonna be almost like you're entering back into the slavery of Egypt. Remember this king is going to take, take, take from you. But they persisted in their demands. So we ended last time with God saying, Do as they ask, and Samuel saying, Everyone return back to his home.
We're kind of holding our breath, waiting. What's gonna happen next? Well, brings us to chapter nine, and chapter nine is the starting of a new story. Because like I said at the beginning of this whole series, large stories are actually a series of smaller stories woven together such that they give a cohesive message. We're all familiar with this because we watch movies.
In movies, we call those scenes, little stories folded together to teach a bigger story. The example I gave at the beginning of the sermon of the series was in Star Wars when Luke falls down in the trash compactor, that's a whole little story there. They're there. The walls start closing in, and Luke gets pulled under, and then it stops, and they get out. There's a whole story happening in that little scene, and that scene is just part of a larger scene, part of
Sean: a larger scene. That's the way stories work. That's what
Sean: we see happening here in chapter nine, the beginning of a new scene, if you will, or
Sean: a new story. And we have a number of
Sean: things here, a new setting. We have a new issue, a conflict that's gonna come, and we get a brand new character introduced to us. We're used to our cast so far. We've had Hannah, Eli, Hofney, Phineas, and Samuel, but now a new character is introduced, and he's gonna play the biggest role yet in our story. So this is a big chapter.
And then one more note before we jump in, I wanna continually remind you of Hannah's prophetic prayer in chapter two because it sets the themes for the entire book of Samuel. In fact, we're gonna see all three of the themes in today's story. Remember I said keep your eye out for these as we go through the story. So Hannah reminded us that God is sovereign over all things, all events, specifically with regard to the fates of men, who rises to power and who falls, who lives and who dies. These things are God's, under God's control.
That leads us to that second theme, the idea of a reversal, where the high is made low, the low is made high, there's rising and falling going on. That idea of reversal happens throughout the book. We saw that with Hannah, the one who was low with no child, raised up when she was given a child. We saw Eli who was a priest fall, literally fall, when he fell from the priesthood, and we saw Samuel raised up. Remember we saw the ark lowly exiled into Philistia, and yet what happened?
Dagon fell before the ark, and God's hand was raised in glory. And of course, just last time we saw the fall of the time of judges and the rise of the time of kings. So this theme continues throughout Samuel, and then the last thing that Hannah points out in her prayer is this idea of the anointed one. God's anointed, someone who would be king over Israel and someone with whom God's own presence would be. So we're gonna see examples of each of those today.
Let me pray for us and then I'll start reading our text. Father, I'm so thankful for this story today. The joy it is to to be able to teach it and to research it and to to know it. I pray that we would all be familiar with this. I pray we would all be encouraged.
Pray that all we would be strengthened by the the reading and the understanding of your word and that we would just be have a lot of gratitude to you as being the God who brings these things about and who loves us and who guides us. We thank you, and we pray for your blessing during this time. In Jesus' name, amen.
Sean: Okay, news story nine:one. There was a
Sean: man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, son of Bechoroth, son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a man of wealth, and he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man.
Sean: There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. What do
Sean: we have so far? Well man has described for us, and remember these physical descriptions are very important. They're not throwaway details. They're building in our minds what this character is like, and they're moving the plot forward. So when you get physical descriptions in the Bible, it's not just so you can picture the character, it's teaching something about them, and we wanna pay close attention.
Sean: Now this character's name is Saul, or in Hebrew Saul, which is interesting. That means asked for. If you've
Sean: been asking for a child for a long time and God granted them to you, you might name him Saul, asked for. Very interesting that
Sean: the people of Israel have just been sa'aling, asking for a king. Furthermore, Saul here is born into a wealthy family. He's very handsome and he's very tall. Think to yourself,
Sean: it kinda has the makings of a good king. What nation wouldn't want a king like this? Of course, that's the point here, right? He's looking like he might be just that sort of king that even the nations around might enjoy. Now little details, he comes from the tribe of Benjamin.
That's interesting because in Genesis 4nine 10, Jacob has prophesied that a king indeed would come to Israel, but that this king would arise from Judah, not from Benjamin. So we'll just keep that in mind as we move on. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul, his son, take one of the young men with you and arise and go and look for the donkeys. And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them.
And he passed through the land of Sha'alim, but they did not they were not there. Then they passed through the
Sean: land of Benjamin, but did not find them. When they came to the
Sean: land of Zuf, Saul and his servants who
Sean: or servant who was with him, Saul said to his servant who was with him, come, let us go back lest my father cease to care about the donfies and become anxious for us. But he said
Sean: to him, behold, there's a man of God in this city and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way he should go. That was the servant talking, Saul responds.
Then Saul said to his servant, but if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring the man of God. What do we have? The servant answered Saul again, Here I have with me a quarter of a shackle of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way. Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, Come, let us go see the seer, for today's prophet was formerly called a seer.
Sean: And Saul said to his servant, Well said, come, let us go. So they went into the city where the man of God was. As they went up the hill to the city, they met young women coming out to draw water and said to them, is the seer here? They answered, he is. Behold, he is just ahead of you.
Hurry. He has come just now to the city because the people have a sacrifice today in the high place. As soon as
Sean: you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat for the people will not eat until he comes since he must bless the sacrifice. Afterward, those who are invited will eat. Now go up for you'll meet
Sean: him immediately. So they went up
Sean: to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out towards them on his way to the high place. Very, very interesting here. Remember, this is not a story about finding lost donkeys. This is an introduction to a main character.
This is how the Holy Spirit chose to orchestrate and to write the introduction of Saul into this story. And there are character developing details here that we'd like to notice. You gotta ask yourself, why does the author include the dialogue he does? Many things were said that day. He includes only a few.
Why is that? It's to move our story forward. Are there any themes established here that are indicative of Saul's character throughout the narrative? Is there maybe a tragic flaw that shows up in Saul?
Sean: And do I get maybe a hint or a whiff of it here? These stories are meant to
Sean: be read and reread, and they're full of really rich detail in the text. So what do we see here? Well, Saul has a servant to go find the donkeys, but it's interesting, his first speech act, which is so important, he says to his servant, you know what? I can't find these things. Let's head back home.
Sean: An incomplete mission is an interesting way to introduce a future king of Israel. Could have
Sean: been introduced anyway. Could have been outworking the fields. Could have been helping his father with a building project, but instead the author choose to introduce this future king with a failure, with something that was incomplete. Even more interesting is Saul's own motivation for doing this. He says, Let's go back lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us.
He's concerned about what someone else might be thinking. So literally here, his introduction is, Let's give up doing what we're doing because I'm concerned about how someone else might respond. I'm only bringing up the motivation because the text makes it clear, and it's important for us to keep in mind as we see Saul moving forward. He's concerned about what someone else might think regarding him. Now we're not gonna evaluate that right now.
The story's gonna lead us forward at the pace we need to, but it's just worth keeping in mind that Saul is someone who is especially conscientious about what others might be thinking regarding him. This is not the last time we're gonna see him act out of that motivation.
Sean: We see something else here. Let me ask you, who's the main character who's moving the plot forward in this little scene? Who's moving the
Sean: plot forward? Who plays a decisive role? Who saves the day? Because we have a whole story right here. You got the setting.
They're looking for the donkeys. You got the event. They're about to give up a search, and then that leads to some interesting conflict. Well, maybe we can reach the man of God, but we need some money to do it. And then the resolution, Oh, here's the money.
Let's go. That's a little story.
Sean: Who's the decisive character in that story? It's the servant.
Sean: The servant is causing the story
Sean: to move forward. Ironically,
Sean: we have someone who's supposed to be the future king of Israel, and he seems unable to manage his own affairs. He's gonna give up on the donkeys. He doesn't know that Samuel is there in that town. He doesn't have the money with him
Sean: that he needs. Interesting that here is supposed to be the future leader of Israel,
Sean: and yet he himself is being led in this story by his servant. Again, this doesn't portend very well for what Saul, the leadership position Saul be entering into. And of course, one more thing to point out here. We kinda get the idea that there's more than just lost donkeys at play here. This character just happens to be named Saul after the people have been asking for, awning for a king.
They just happen to show up at the place where the man of God is. The Hebrew makes very clear that the servant just happens to find that coin in his pocket. There's a passive kind of form of the word there, which gives the idea of, oh, look, I happen to have found a coin in my pocket. So that seems kind of coincidental. They just happened to run into these women who just happened to have also seen Samuel,
Sean: who just now came into the town, and then when they walk up,
Sean: they just happened to see Samuel walking towards them. I mean, you get the idea here that if Saul would've stopped to tie his sandal earlier that day, none of this would've really lined up. If the servant had taken the coins out of his tunic before he threw it in
Sean: the laundry, none of this would've lined up. God is sovereign here over every last detail in this divine meeting. See what happens here.
Sean: This is 15, gives us a little bit of a background here. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from
Sean: the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen my people because of their cry, because their cry has come to me. When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, Here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who shall restrain my people. Just a quick note here, see how God's taking direct responsibility? He says, I'm going to send you a man from Benjamin.
You might think, oh, bet he's, you know,
Sean: an angel goes to Saul and tells
Sean: him where to go. No, that's not how it took place. God sending Saul to Samuel, looks like lost donkeys, found coins, a determined servant bumping into
Sean: the right people at the right time. Isn't it amazing then how just God is in total control of
Sean: this even down to the last second? That's encouraging.
Sean: That's encouraging just to understand, be aware of
Sean: that for us to know that God is working out his purposes even in our lives through everyday common means. Let's also not miss this detail. What's God telling Samuel to do? He's going to anoint Saul leader of Israel. This is huge.
This is
Sean: the first Mashiach. That means Messiah. Right? Mashiach is the Hebrew that we translate into English, Messiah. And as we've said many times, Messiah in Greek is Christ, the first anointed one.
This is the beginning of the office that Jesus Christ will perfectly fulfill and eternally fulfill. We're seeing it established right here. That's exciting. 18, Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me where is the house of the seer? Samuel answered Saul, I am a seer.
Go up before me to the high place for today you shall eat with me. And in the morning, I will tell you or rather, I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind. As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for
Sean: all your father's house? Saul answered, Am I not a Benjamite of the least of
Sean: the tribes of Israel, and is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribes of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken this way? Then Samuel took Saul and his young man and brought them to the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about 30 persons. And Samuel said to the cook, bring the portion I gave you of which I said to you, put it aside.
Sean: So the cook took up the leg that was on it and set them before Saul. And Samuel said, see what was kept is set before you eat because it was kept for you until the hour appointed that you may eat with the guests. So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when
Sean: they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul on the roof and he lay down and slept. At the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, Up, that I may send you on your way. So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into the street. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to pass on before us, and when he passes on, stop here yourself for a while that I may make known to you the word of God. All right, so the servant was correct, wasn't he?
Samuel knew all about the donkeys, and he knew about Saul's entire situation, but they're not Samuel's main concern. We already saw behind the scenes, right? Samuel knows that he's going to anoint Saul. Saul has no idea that's going to happen yet, but he seems to be catching wind that something is not as it seems. Look at this odd thing Samuel says to him.
He says, And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for your father's house? It doesn't read very well in English, and it's because the Hebrew is a bit difficult to translate. The NET, another great translation, says it this way. Whom does all Israel desire?
Is it not you and all your father's house? Now without getting into the weeds here, this all depends on how we interpret that word desirable or desire. Is Saul the one for whom all Israel desires or is Saul the recipient of all that is desirable in Israel? That's the two ways this can be understood. Now, in light of chapter eight, both of these make perfect sense.
All of Israel is desiring after a king, that's Saul, but the king is going to take, take, take. So certainly Saul will be the recipient of all that is desirable in Israel. Both of these fit the context really well. So it might just be one of those Hebrew plays on words that happens a lot. Either way though, when Saul hears that, he realizes he's being called to a great leadership task, great responsibility.
We know that because of his response. And he gives us very classic response. There's disbelief, questions his own ability. We see Moses do this in Exodus three ten. He says, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
When God raises up Gideon in Judges six fifteen, Gideon does the same thing. Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. This is a fairly common response then. And Saul does have a point, smallest clan of the smallest tribe.
But this is very much like Hannah's prayer. Remember what Hannah prophesied in two eight. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts up the needy from the ash sheep to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. Now, though Saul wasn't necessarily poor, he was of low standing.
He was the smallest tribe and the smallest clan of that tribe, and God is doing his reversal work yet again, taking the small clan and setting him up as prince over Israel. See God doing that. So Saul goes, he feasts, spends the night, he's leaving the next day, and Samuel has something to tell him. What's that gonna be? Chapter 10.
Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin Of Zelza. And they will say to you, the donkeys that you went to seek are found.
And now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you saying, what shall I do about my son? Then you shall go from there farther and come to the Oak Of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand. After that, you shall come to Gibeah's Elohim, where there is a garrison of Philistines, and there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them prophesying.
Then the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do for God is with you. Then go down before me to Gilgal and behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do. We just saw it.
Sean: There it is. It's happened. Israel's first anointed one, first Messiah. The office of Christ has been established here.
Sean: Now it's not public yet. That'll come later, but it's nonetheless significant. It's official. What does this mean? Well, he's been anointed now.
He's set apart. Saul is set apart for this special task to deliver God's people from
Sean: the Philistines and to lead them as their ruler, as their leader. Now look closely. What happens when he
Sean: is anointed? God will be with him because the Spirit of God is going to rush upon him. There are three signs here. We're gonna focus on the third because it's the most important for the story. Saul's gonna meet this throng of minstrels, and the spirit is gonna rush upon him.
He's gonna prophesy. He'll be turned into another man.
Sean: This is vital for understanding the Christ,
Sean: the anointed one, because the spirit's connection to the anointed one is very powerful throughout scripture. When you're anointed, this places you in special connection with God. You're consecrated to do his work, and thus you're empowered by his spirit to fulfill that work. Now this is not the first time we've seen the spirit, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. It's the first time the Spirit has accompanied the anointed one.
That's pivotal. But we've seen the Spirit's work before. For instance, in Exodus 31, when God needs someone to build him a tabernacle, Bezalel is the spirit comes upon Bezalel to give him skill to build that tabernacle. It says this, I have filled him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and craftsmanship. You see the spirit equipped him to do the work that God had for him to do.
Similarly with the judges, whenever God raises up a judge to do a work for him, that judge is empowered with the spirit to go about and do that work. Judges three ten with Odhniel. The spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. Same thing with Gideon, Judges six thirty four. But the spirit of the Lord closed Gideon, and
Sean: he sounded the trumpet, and the Abyssarites were called out to follow him.
Sean: Famously, the spirit of the Lord did the same thing with Sampson. When he rushed upon Sampson, Sampson was given superhuman martial capabilities. Chapter 14, verse six of Judges says this, Then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, that's Samson, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion to pieces. Later it says, The spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and he went down to Ashkelon
Sean: and struck down 30 men. Those were bad guys.
Sean: Later it says, The spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
Sean: Now we might just pause and ask ourselves, what
Sean: does the spirit do here? Does he make you a craftsman? Does he help you rally forces to battle? Does he help you rip up lions, or does he make ropes melt off your arms?
Sean: This is a really big resume for the spirit, very diverse. But it's actually quite simple. The spirit did then what he does now. The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of God with someone to empower that person to do the work has for them to do. This empowerment can be as diverse as the work God wants you to do is diverse.
If God is raising up someone to build a tabernacle,
Sean: then the Holy Spirit empowers that person to be a craftsman. If God is raising up someone to lead an army, the Holy Spirit can empower that person to lead. If God is raising up someone to fight a lion for one reason or another, the Holy Spirit can empower that person to do so. It really doesn't matter the ministry. The ministry is very wide, as diverse as the body, and yet the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers for that.
He is the personal presence of God with someone to empower that person for the work that God has given for them. And while the vast majority of people in the Old Testament do not receive the spirit, we see this correlation very powerfully between the anointed one and the presence of the spirit. This is extremely important for understanding the spirit's role in Jesus's ministry as he perfectly fulfills the office of Christ. So here we see the very first king anointed, official Messiah, the very first, not God himself,
Sean: but an anointed leader of Israel, and then immediately the spirit accompanies the anointed one. Now we're gonna press into this a little bit deeper because this directly affects us today, you and me. There's a clear textual line that flows from the story today, travels all these years through scripture, and strikes each one of us where we are today. Let me show that to you.
Sean: Later on in the book of Samuel, that's a bit of a spoiler, in 1613, David will be anointed king of Israel. Listen to how that works. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, that's David, in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward, Because the spirit accompanies the anointed one, right? To equip him to do the
Sean: work he has to do. Now we
Sean: might rightly ask ourselves, what then is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the anointed one, Jesus Christ, who is God himself, come as a man? What's the relationship between the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus Christ God himself? Well, there's a lot to say about that. For instance, Isaiah eleven:two says this, And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Sean: Lord. Spirit rests upon, stays with the anointed one Jesus,
Sean: and we saw that at his baptism. This verse is fulfilled in John one thirty two, which says this, I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. The spirit abided with Jesus Christ. How about Isaiah 61 verse one? The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
So do you hear the correlation there again? The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Why? Because of the anointing. There's our association between anointed or Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Now just listen to what Jesus does with this verse in Luke four. Jesus is in a synagogue teaching. He asks for the scroll of Isaiah to be
Sean: brought to him. This is what he does. Four seventeen, And the scroll of
Sean: the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of
Sean: the Lord's favor. And he
Sean: rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus says, I am that anointed servant who has the Holy Spirit of God, such that I go and proclaim the good news and give sight to the blind. It's amazing.
One last reference about this. Keep your ears open for anointed and Holy Spirit, the empowering of the Spirit, and God's presence. They're all right here in this verse. This is from Acts 10. This is when Peter is describing to the Gentiles what Jesus' ministry was like on earth.
Peter says this, You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Fulfillment of prophecy right there. How amazing is that to see God equipping Jesus Christ, who is God, with the Holy Spirit, who is God. There's some stunning Trinitarian work going on here, and of course this perfect fulfillment of the prophecy of the Christ that we've seen all throughout scripture.
But remember, what I'm doing right now is we're tracing this textual line to us here today. This is how that works. Saul anointed, the spirit came upon him. David anointed, the Spirit came upon him. Jesus Christ, God himself in his earthly ministry was anointed with the Holy Spirit.
And what are we called? Christians. This means anointed ones. New Testament talks about this quite a bit. John talks about it, and Paul also.
This is an explicit one where Paul mentions our own anointing. Second Corinthians one twenty one-twenty two, And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Holy Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Sean: You see that? God has anointed us in Christ and God has given us the Holy Spirit. That's what you'd expect. Are you shocked by that? I'm shocked by that.
Sean: By being united to Christ in faith, we receive anointing, and we have the same spirit in us, the personal presence of God himself, the same Holy Spirit who equipped Samson and Gideon and David, and yes, even Jesus Christ God himself, while he was ministering on earth,
Sean: was empowered by the Holy Spirit. He is the same spirit who lives in us. Now, do
Sean: you know what he does? It's the same. His function is the same. He equips us for the work of ministry, just like you'd expect. This is what one Corinthians 12 is all about.
This is what we know as spiritual gifts. Now it makes sense,
Sean: and we're pretty familiar with those. It's what the spirit has always been doing. He's equipping God's people for the work that God has given them to do.
Sean: Hear how Paul describes the gifts that we have that the spirit gives to us in one Corinthians twelve:seven-eleven. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, all these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. So Christian, do you recognize the amazing gift that we have in the presence of the Holy Spirit? And are you being empowered by the Spirit to do the work that God has for you
Sean: to do? And no, this is not Pentecostal.
Sean: This is not charismatic. This is biblical theology.
Sean: This is the way it works. The spirit is God's personal presence with us, and he's equipping us and making us sufficient for whatever God calls us to, just like he's always done all throughout scripture. Because we are anointed along with Christ. Now that's not going to be
Sean: the same for everyone. Again, would encourage you to check out first Corinthians chapter 12. There's a lot of variety here, And often the way in which the spirit will empower us is not flashy or exciting. Not healing, not tearing apart lions with our bare hands, not prophecy. Of course the spirit is sufficient to empower any one of us to do
Sean: that if he would will. That's often not what we see. Much more often, how does the spirit empower us to do the work God has given us? Well God's given us to work to build one another up. And the work of the spirit that we see is something like opening our homes and our hearts to those around us.
That's called hospitality. One Peter four:nine, that's
Sean: a gift from the Holy Spirit. Or taking time out of your busy schedule to help a brother or sister in Christ, that's the spiritual gift of serving, Romans twelve:seven. Oftentimes the way the Spirit will empower us to work for God is by living in light of God's promises even when we don't see them to be true. That would be the spiritual gift of faith,
Sean: one Corinthians twelve:nine. Or maybe being generous, opening our hearts to be generous with the wealth that God has granted us with one another. That's generosity, a spiritual gift. Romans twelve:eight. It was a supernatural thing then.
It's no less supernatural now. It was a supernatural thing for Sampson to tear a lion apart. It's a supernatural thing for God to open my heart and make it generous towards others. The Holy Spirit is still empowering his people to do
Sean: the work that God has given us
Sean: to do. It's no less miraculous now. It's no less amazing now, and it's certainly no less of a privilege now.
Sean: So I wanted to take this moment to encourage you and to stun you and say, wow, I'm
Sean: in line with the scriptures,
Sean: and the Holy Spirit lives in
Sean: me. Let's sow to the spirit. Let's walk by
Sean: the spirit. Let us not quench the spirit in our lives,
Sean: and by God's grace, may we operate empowered by the spirit as we ought to. So we see that Saul then all the way back, Saul has received that anointing in the spirit. How's this gonna work out for him? Let's read what happens. Chapter 10 verse nine now.
When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave
Sean: him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day. When they came to Gibeah, behold, a
Sean: group of prophets met him and the spirit of God rushed upon him and he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, what has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul among the prophets? And
Sean: a man of the place answered, and who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul also among the prophets? When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high
Sean: place. Saul's uncle said to him and his servant, where did you go? And he said, to seek the donkeys. And when we saw that they were not to be found, we went to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, please tell me what Samuel said to you.
Sean: And Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found. But about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.
Sean: So it happens just as Samuel said, all these signs came, Saul was filled with
Sean: the Holy Spirit prophesied, but then look at this, he returns home and we have this kind of comical ending to this story about the donkeys. I mean, what an adventure Saul just had. He goes after the donkeys. He bumps into Samuel. He's surprise anointed to be the entire leader of Israel.
The Holy Spirit of God rushes upon him. He prophesies with
Sean: all these minstrels, and he comes back home, and his uncle says, Saul, tell me what happened. And Saul says, Samuel told us where the donkeys were. That's it. Everything else is kept secret. Gotta ask ourselves, why is he hiding it?
Is he embarrassed? Is he doubting? Maybe he's just still processing. Maybe he's keeping it secret because Samuel seems to wanna keep it secret. We really don't know.
What we'll have to do then is continue in the story of God's anointed and see what happens next. See what becomes of Saul. May you pray for us? Lord, I think we're all humbled and amazed that your same Holy Spirit who has been empowering your anointed ones throughout history. The same Holy Spirit who Jesus Christ, God himself, as a man, operated through.
God, we thank you that you have gifted, you've gifted us with the Holy Spirit. You've sealed us with the Holy Spirit.
Sean: Father, I pray that we would be operating in a manner that is worthy of
Sean: you, such that when we get to heaven, we would
Sean: see that we've actually made good use of our gifts, been good stewards, not that we've squandered them. Help us not to quench the spirit either. Help us to, as the scripture says in Galatians and Romans, to walk in the spirit, or as it says in Galatians, to keep in step with the spirit, or again, to sow to the spirit such that we can reap from the spirit rather than sowing to the flesh. Father, I pray that we would enter into this story of the Bible and operate as your anointed ones, empowered by your spirit for the work that you have given us to do in your church and your world. Pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Caleb: Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.